Venting Steam

[Iwata]

Your account was obviously compromised. Steam has a duty to all legitimate account holders to provide due diligence on their end when it comes to ownership claims. When an account is stolen it is YOUR responsibility to supply the proof of ownership. You provided NO PROOF to steam in any form that you were the account holder, all you did was ask them to provide you with information (this is something that identity thieves would ask for). I'm gunna applaud Steam on this one because you've interacted with them exactly how I would expect someone who stole an account would behave.

Steam's policy is reasonable: If an account is compromised then it is suspended until someone can prove ownership with retail CD Keys or credit card/bank information. You refused both of those. If they give in to your idea of how Steam account security should work any douche bag could email steam and tell them my account is actually theirs. Do you understand how stupid that is?

They asked for the CD key of a game I don't own. How can I supply them with that? Had they asked for the same information regarding any of the games I DO own (and I did offer this alternative to them) I would've gladly done so, but they never even acknowledged that option. I offered to supply them with proof of identity, and similarly, that was never acknowledged. The ONE THING they asked for was something that, as I stated, I never owned. Every option, every alternative, every venue of communication was simply ignored by them. So how is that good customer support?

I fail to see how you can applaud what is without doubt the worst customer-support experience I've ever been subjected to. In my view, they used a suspicion to legitimize what simply ammounts to corporate theft, without ever making clear to me, the client, why I was being deprived of the products I payed for. If I was a pirate, I might be inclined to agree with you, but seeing as to how I spent hundreds of Euros in games, only for them to be arbitrarily removed, you'll understand if I'm not happy with the company's stance on resolving the situation.

Edit: As for me asking for information, I didn't ask them for CD-Keys or access codes. I asked, as I think anyone in my situation would, why my account was "suspended", given that that simple word was the full extent of their initial explanation. And it's all I ever got. Would you do any less? If you found your car taken away by the Police, would you not want to ask why? If you got kicked out of your house, wouldn't you want to ask why? Otherwise, it's a sad world where companies can do what they feel like without us customers feeling like we have the right to ask for a justification, especially when the company simply takes your property away. I somehow don't believe that anyone would simply shrug and go "ah well, they might've taken my things away, but I'm sure they had a good reason to do so".

 

[Sebster 105]

If you're telling the truth and didn't pirate any game you should be within your legal right to download them off torrents. Granted you won't be able to play on Steam's servers online, but you should be able to get your single player games back. Not sure if I'm right here, so someone correct me if I'm wrong. I don't want to advocate him to do anything illegal.

I've done something similar. I have a cat. My cat likes shiny things. My BF2 disc is shiny, my BF2 manual isn't

I did torrent Bf2 and use a legit key, so I'd do something similar

 

[Kevlar Eater]

Your account was obviously compromised. Steam has a duty to all legitimate account holders to provide due diligence on their end when it comes to ownership claims. When an account is stolen it is YOUR responsibility to supply the proof of ownership. You provided NO PROOF to steam in any form that you were the account holder, all you did was ask them to provide you with information (this is something that identity thieves would ask for). I'm gunna applaud Steam on this one because you've interacted with them exactly how I would expect someone who stole an account would behave.

Steam's policy is reasonable: If an account is compromised then it is suspended until someone can prove ownership with retail CD Keys or credit card/bank information. You refused both of those. If they give in to your idea of how Steam account security should work any douche bag could email steam and tell them my account is actually theirs. Do you understand how stupid that is?

So if you were to be hauled to court on the accusation of murder, and you and the people representing you couldn't provide any evidence of your innocence, and because of that, you were sentenced to execution, would you applaud the justice system for doing their job?

 

[TrevHead]

Im sad that this has happened to you, thats the problem with any system ment to catch criminals sometimes an innocent person gets hung for crime he didnt commit.

I suppose all you can do is keep trying maybe talk to others who have been in the same sutuation as you. Plus with the summer sales on I expect the valve staff are alittle overworked atm, it might be best to wait until the steam is over and they can give your case more time. The fact steam has no way of contacting them on the phone is really shitty, shame on you Valve!

With all the recent hackings in the gaming industry is become very weary of gaming thats tied to the internet. Just a few hints for you and other PC gamers when dealing with Steam.

*Dont put all your eggs in one basket, spread them around in multiple accounts.

*Do you really need all your games on steam? Buy boxed and use other DD services. If you actually spent the time to do price comparison on Steam's games you will often find theyre overpriced anyway, even at a 50% discount

*Some games like Bioshock and Capcom's titles use GFWL (i know its a POS) which means more accounts and chance that something could go wrong, cut steam out of the equation.

*Dont have an account with only downloadable games on it. Have one or 2 boxed games linked to each account. Make sure they are in a safe place, it might even be wise taking snaps of the it, the keycode and the receipt.

*Make sure you are as safe as you can from viruses, Pirate games and watch porn? make sure you have a decent standard of internet security. Or you could have a Key Logger on your PC. (Malwarebytes FTW)

*Make sure you use a good password, one that is unique and not used anywhere else. Some ppl lazily just have one or two passwords that theyu use for everything on the internet. With all the hacks in the game industry this is a big no no. Dont allow windows to remember your PWs instead write them all down in a book. Dont let others see you type in your pass.

Bugger it im gonna put this in its own thread so that more ppl read it. Is there any other hints I can add to it?

It seems that Valve get very uppity when you do something out of the norm like change ISPs or move home, its a shame there isnt a way to forwarn them to save having to go though all the BS

 

[jpoon]

They're on your harddrive still right? I would have no problem finding a way to get them working again, just sayin...

This very same thing happened to me last year, steam "suspended" my account with no reason and no explaination. I lost my whole Orange Box collection and I didn't even crack or hack any of the games. From that day on they lost me as a customer, fuck steam is all I say. It's not a good thing giving a corporation the keys to your car then being upset when they break the key off in your door.

There is of course one answer to this, but the mods don't want people to talk about it.


This is what I always recommend:
Don't buy from steam, ALWAYS buy a physical copy!

 

[EternalFacepalm]

really urinated me off that did.

What?

Anyhow, this has never happened to me. My experiences with Steam Support have all been, believe it or not, good.

 

[Iwata]

This is what I always recommend:
Don't buy from steam, ALWAYS buy a physical copy!

The thing is, I always did buy physical copies. I never once bought a game through Steam itself. All my games are in disc form. But that's ultimately irrelevant, as they need Steam to run the game anyway, disc or no disc.

 

[jpoon]

This is what I always recommend:
Don't buy from steam, ALWAYS buy a physical copy!

The thing is, I always did buy physical copies. I never once bought a game through Steam itself. All my games are in disc form. But that's ultimately irrelevant, as they need Steam to run the game anyway, disc or no disc.

You can circumvent steam, there are options here. You just will need to find them.

 

[Atheist.]

If you're telling the truth and didn't pirate any game you should be within your legal right to download them off torrents. Granted you won't be able to play on Steam's servers online, but you should be able to get your single player games back. Not sure if I'm right here, so someone correct me if I'm wrong. I don't want to advocate him to do anything illegal.

I love how you blasted people for sceptisism in your thread about being mugged but opened this post with "if you're telling the truth."

The irony is delicious.

OT: Dude, this really sucks and I genuinely think you should start an online petition. This stuff sometimes works. Maybe a facebook group?
Other option, call them and cry.

Pretty sure my skepticism here is a bit less than what has been put up on my thread. I actually gave him advice after my brief moment of. The only reason I put a bit, key word, bit, of skepticism is because I've seen this story dozens of times and occasionally said offender was lying. Thanks for calling me out, though.

 

[Iwata]

If you're telling the truth and didn't pirate any game you should be within your legal right to download them off torrents. Granted you won't be able to play on Steam's servers online, but you should be able to get your single player games back. Not sure if I'm right here, so someone correct me if I'm wrong. I don't want to advocate him to do anything illegal.

I love how you blasted people for sceptisism in your thread about being mugged but opened this post with "if you're telling the truth."

The irony is delicious.

OT: Dude, this really sucks and I genuinely think you should start an online petition. This stuff sometimes works. Maybe a facebook group?
Other option, call them and cry.

Pretty sure my skepticism here is a bit less than what has been put up on my thread. I actually gave him advice after my brief moment of. The only reason I put a bit, key word, bit, of skepticism is because I've seen this story dozens of times and occasionally said offender was lying. Thanks for calling me out, though.

I saw nothing offensive in either post. No call for anyone to call anyone out on anything, please let's try to keep this discussion civil, as it's mostly been so far. Thank you both.

 

[TheEvilCheese]

Well, I feel sorry for you but am (unfortunately) not surprised.

I always buy physical copies of games where possible simply because one mistake with steam (1 forgotten password) means you no longer have any games. If I were you I'd have emailed steam Pictures of all the CD keys associated with the account and as stated before, a threat of legal action does tend to get a more personal response. If they still didn't reimburse you in any way you would be morally right (in my mind) to get a copy of these games in any manner, legal or otherwise[footnote]I am certainly not advocating piracy, but if all attempts have been made to play the games legally purchased, I don't think it is morally wrong for you to get them working.[/footnote].

The lack of personal support offered by steam is simply atrocious but the low staffing costs help explain how it can be so damn cheap.

 

[Azulito]

That's a really unfortunate situation and I'm sorry you've had to go through that x.x On the plus side, at least you didn't have more games. I have like... 250+ so in the event my Steam account gets banned, I'm screwed xD

My experience with Steam support has been pretty decent. I went to the US to visit a friend in December, wanted to buy them a game but couldn't. Contacted Steam support and the unlocked my IP to allow purchases in the US. All resolved in a matter of hours really.

I'm going a little off topic. I think the best thing to do would be to write to their main offices. At least then it's certain that someone will read what you have to say.

 

[lacktheknack]

http://www.bbb.org/

That's utter trash. WTF, Steam? Complaining to the Better Business Bureau might grease some wheels...

Then again, maybe not. They already <link=http://www.bbb.org/western-washington/business-reviews/computer-software-publishers-and-developers/valve-corporation-in-bellevue-wa-27030704>have an "F". That's pretty pathetic.

 

[Sad Face]

It sounds like they were asking for any CD key (yes they exist for the digital ones too) of any game you own.

I had my account hacked awhile back and had to go through the same jumping through hoops that you've been through. I had to take photos of one of my game manuals and write a key that they gave me next to the CD key. Any CD key of any game I owned. If I had no hard copies then all I had to do was supply some credit card information along with some of the games probably purchased with the information.

It was annoying, it took some time, but it was worth it. Steam is not a flawless system by any means, but I still personally like it. I know that nobody else can pretend that my account is theirs because they don't have that information, and I know that there's always a way to prove for sure that an account is mine.

I'm sorry this happened to you though. They couldn't give you any better information than that?

Crappy luck.

 

[Iwata]

It sounds like they were asking for any CD key (yes they exist for the digital ones too) of any game you own.

I had my account hacked awhile back and had to go through the same jumping through hoops that you've been through. I had to take photos of one of my game manuals and write a key that they gave me next to the CD key. Any CD key of any game I owned.

Unfortunately, this was not the case with me. They were quite specific in what CD key they wanted, as in "we need a photo of the manual with the following cd-key:____________", which was further complicated by the fact that I had no such manual or game.

As previously mentioned, I did in fact offer to provide other proof of identity or possession, but my requests were ignored.

 

[mcnally86]

snip

This is the reason tech support from steam is so bad to me. If I complain too much about some games not working even after just paying for them they threaten to take away my working games.

 

[Balimaar]

Do the games get tied to the account upon installing them?

on a digital copy its tied to your account as soon as you click on 'complete purchase'. with a physical copy its not tied to your account until you enter the cd key.

snip

kiddies dont read the spoiler

Spoiler

pissed me off. was using another word that meant the same thing in the hope of avoiding mods wrath

 

[SwishiestB0g]

I feel sorry for you I really do. My brother had it happen to him and he spent 2 weeks getting his account returned to him.

The problem is, about the whole Steam can cut you off, is when you make a Steam account you accept those terms and conditions.

There was a story a good while back about the Terms saying that the game company owned your soul. They wanted to prove no-one really read it which is how they can get away with such things.

I still use Steam and will continue to use Steam. Aside from this thread most of the customer service I had heard about was quite good. Unfortunately for you it wasn't and that sucks.



What I'm sure happened was you got hacked, someone bought Metro 2033, you then tried to access this account and were mistaken for said hacker and what followed was stupid but then again they are humans.

I know people who work in customer service, not to defend them but they sit there all day responding to questions, "hw do i ply thi5 games?"

Not using that as an excuse but some people don't take it considerably well and when you have as many people as Steam does potentially emailing customer service, well that's a lot of people to employ to personalize the service.

I am sorry it happened, I really am, it is really quite unfortunate and if I could I'd try and get it reversed. All I can say is I hope you have better luck in the future.

 

[DrDango]

my guess of why probelly someone hacked the account and did nasty s**t with it and changed the password and your retrys could of caused it to think that you were the hacker and stopped you from entering.